A look inside the photo titling process

I'll say this right up front - I am TERRIBLE at titling my artwork! I hate it! I'm not one that thinks a title will make or break a piece, but it certainly can enhance it.

Many of my drawings are untitled because I simply cannot come up with anything that I think is a good title.

"Untitled", 2006

Some have obvious titles that I tacked onto them just so I could call them something, but I would change them in a moment if something better came along.

"Newborn", 2005

Then there's the few where a good title has actually presented itself.

"Rear View", 2009

And the ones where my wonderful fans have suggested titles.

"Surrender", 2010

None of those situations would work when entering Ex Arte Equinus. I didn't want to send in untitled photos, the "obvious" titles were pretty pathetic, and no one had any suggestions for me. I was left with coming up with fantastic titles all on my own.

This was the first photo to name:

I decided to just write down a list of all the words that came to mind while looking at the photo. 

Literally, wherever my mind went, I wrote it down. Then I went back and looked over the words to see if any went together. I liked the "back door" idea, and the next word I wrote, "behind", inspired "Behind the Scenes". I considered "Behind the Scenes Look" and "Behind the Scenes View" also, but decided to go with the simple version.

The other photo I had to name was the one that really stumped me. I had absolutely no ideas. Again, I just started writing every word that came to mind looking at the photo.

At the end, I had an odd list of random words, but the treasure idea stuck with me, and I decided to go with "Buried Treasure".

So there it is - the method I'll probably use for naming most of my artwork in the future.